Adventures In Pauper

So I found myself on MTGO, which I've just recently got into, with 20 bucks to spare and a promise that I'd draft Nix Tix M10 tonight (I won 2 packs and got a Master of the Wild Hunt, so happy me). So I had about 8 bucks. What can you do on MODO for 8 bucks?

The answer is Pauper. Pauper is a format that only permits commons (or to be specific, cards that were printed as common at one point). There's a wide variety of Tier 1 and 2 strategies, as can be seen at this webpage.

I decided to go for Classic Pauper, and I decided to go for G/W Slivers. Unfortunately the Muscle Slivers would have taken up my 8 bucks right there, so my second choice was the old-school Orzhov Blink, which has fallen out of favor since M10.

The deck cost a grand total of 6 tix of clever bot-buying, and here's what I ran:

4 Blind Hunter
4 Chittering Rats
3 Phyrexian Rager
4 Ravenous Rats
3 Aven Riftwatcher
3 Mulldrifter
3 Shrieking Grotesque

Spells
4 Duress
4 Echoing Decay
4 Momentary Blink

Lands
9 Swamp
4 Orzhov Basilica
4 Plains
4 Terramorphic Expanse
3 Island

SIDEBOARD
4 Circle of Protection: Black
4 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Oblivion Ring
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Aven Riftwatcher
1 Mulldrifter 

The only change I made from the list I started with was -1 Phyrexian Rager and +1 Shrieking Grotesque, and I'm fairly happy with the choice. Pauper can descend into creature stalls, and when 2/X's are the norm, races take a while. So a critical mass of fliers was pretty good.

I haven't got any matchups at the moment, but I have been enjoying it. One addition I'd like to make to the deck is Soul Stair Expedition, since it seems very powerful in this deck. They finally kill your blinkers, and you simply bring them back again. The ultimate recursion package.

Last Gasp and Okiba-Gang Shinobi were two cards I also purchased, since I figured they might be useful. I'm considering Duress in the side over Relic, and putting Last Gasp in main, since Kor Skyfisher shuts down a lot of my offence.

What I like about Pauper is that it's both very cheap, and it's competitive. It also seems to speak to the 'core' of Magic, since the commons are very in tune with the color pie.

Orzhov Blink is a deck of advantages. Gaining life, draining life, and gaining card advantage with Ravenous Rats and Mulldrifter, it's a strange kind of control deck, but a fun one to play. I think my next move will be to take out the Chittering Rats (which put a strain on the manabase) and the Duresses in order to add Last Gasp and Soul Stair Expedition, and see how it goes.

I think you'll be seeing a few more posts about Pauper in the upcoming weeks, since it's certainly piqued my interest. I'd also like to play a U/B Control list I saw floating around the tournament practice room, and if I want to, I can purchase it for the price of a lunch (as long as I don't add Daze to the deck).

So if you're on MTGO, give Pauper a try. It's great fun, and very cheap to get started. And you never know what fun you could have!

Zendikar Achievements!

I was wondering a couple of months ago: what would make Magic even better? ACHIEVEMENTS! But what was the point of making achievements just for myself? Flash forward to now, and I now have the medium to do so.

For the uninitiated:

Achievements, also known by many names, like awards, accomplishments, feats or badges, are certain objectives within a game, the accomplishment of which awards a certain amount of points (usually). Gamers love achievements, as it's in their nature to strive for objectives. Xbox 360 has it, World of Warcraft has it...why not Magic?

Thus, every time a new set is released and whenever the hell I feel like it, I'll release a new group of achievements. If you succeed at one, feel free to post your story!

Here are the first 15 achievements I've come up with:

HOW Much Mana?: Kick one of the following cards: Conqueror’s Pledge, Rite of Replication, Sadistic Sacrament, Elemental Appeal, Gigantiform. (10 points)

Land Ho!: Play 3 land in a single turn. (10 points)

Suicide Indeed: Take 10 self-inflicted damage in one game. (10 points)

Winnin’ The Expedition: Activate 2 Expedition cards in one turn. (10 points)

Another One?: Play 4 of any card that isn’t a basic land in a single game. (20 points)

Cards Up My Sleeve: Destroy 3 different types of permanent in one game. (The permanent types are creature, artifact, enchantment, land, planeswalker and tribal). (20 points)

Down With The Chief: Defeat a player who has a Bloodchief Ascension with 3 or more counters on it. (20 points)

Here Have Some Cards: Win a game by casting Sign in Blood on an opponent. (20 points)

Man of the Land: Have a 10/10 or bigger creature from among the following: Knight of the Reliquary, Ob Nixilis, the Fallen, Territorial Baloth. (20 points)

Not Very Observant: Play the alternate casting costs of 3 traps in a single game. (20 points)

The Other Rare-Draft: Pick 12 full-art basic lands in a draft, then 3-0 the draft. (30 points)

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Fetches!: Go Top 3 at FNM with a mono-colored deck. (30 points)

You Suck: Steal a permanent, destroy all creatures, and take an extra turn in a 24-hour period. (30 points)

I'd like feedback on this, since it's a pretty unique idea, and I figure either it totally flops or it does well, and I love experimenting.

I am currently accepting stories and submissions for new achievements at salivanth@live.com, or on Twitter at

www.twitter.com/mtgsalivanth.

Happy achieving!

From The Vault: Exiled: Why They Were Exiled

The following post is from the author of M:TG Color Pie at http://mtgcolorpie.wordpress.com/. His blog mainly focuses on the flavour of Magic. He wrote this post on From The Vault: Exiled. Enjoy!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From the Vault: Exiled goes on sale this Friday and if you haven't pre-ordered your copy, wow, I'm sorry. These things will go like hotcakes: tournament worthy foils, some that haven't been printed in foils before, sought after EDH staples. But, this being a tournament blog, I've decided to give you all a history lesson in tournaments: why were these cards banned/restricted?

For some of you complaining why this set didn't have Sol Ring or Mana Drain or the like, calm down. Wizards is also giving us a history lesson; theses are cards that were too good to see multiple copies in a deck. So while you may be mad at Kird Ape being in here, there's a reason.

Name: Balance
Banned/Restricted format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Let's see, a Mind Twist, Armageddon, and a Wrath of God for 1W. Gee, how could that go wrong. Like all reset cards, Balance is too good when it becomes abused for a one-sided effect. Good against weenie decks, good against mana ramp decks and good against control decks. So having all that on one card at that price, is unthinkable these days. Imagine playing it in a deck with four-of's? Sick, right?

Name: Berserk
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Vintage (Unrestricted in 2003)
Why: 1. Wizards hates doubling (except MaRo). 2. This was way more powerful when creatures overran the tables. Vintage has shifted to more of the spells/combo control metagame over the past 10+ years and so to give creature heavy decks a chance, this was unrestricted. No one's called for it's restriction again.

Name: Channel 
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage
Why: Yes, another Green spell. Part of the "first" combo Channel/Fireball, it was actually the first engine that changed one resource to another (life for mana). And because the mana is colorless AND you can pay it any time during the turn, you can do some crazy stuff for it. Right now it's in my Verdeloth the Ancient EDH deck. Really, really good.

Name: Gifts Ungiven
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - EDH/Restricted - Vintage
Why: In a format where some of the most powerful cards are restricted, it was only a matter of time before this one went the same way. "Hey, I'm going to go get 4 cards and oh, I've got a Yawgmoth's Will in my hand? Oh darn, I missed that." It's even banned in EDH. It's better than Intuition and Fact or Fiction in Vintage, the two cards that inspired this.

Name: Goblin Lackey
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Before the printing of Onslaught, the "best" goblins were Goblin Marshal, Goblin Welder, Mogg Fanatic, and Squee. After Onslaught: Goblin Goon, Goblin Piledriver, Goblin Sharpshooter, Goblin Warchief, and Siege-Gang Commander. Notice the better Goblins because players sure did. First turn Lacky. Second turn swing, put Siege-Gang onto the battlefield, cast Warchief. Third turn cast Piledriver, swing with all. That's alot of damage. It's a very powerful 1/1 threat.

Name: Kird Ape
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None. Previously Banned - Extended (Unbanned in September 2005 with printing in 9th)
Why: Because a 2/3 for R is too powerful. Seriously, that's why Kird Ape was banned when Extended first started (I know because I read it in my InQuest magazine). Besides my first take with it (I thought it was +1/+2 for each forest in play), it was still a good card. Again, this is a time when more people were playing creatures than spells so anything this powerful on the first turn had to be ban-worthy. Of course, times have now changed, everyone can get a laugh that a "vanilla" creature can get banned. Right Tarmogoyf?

Name: Lotus Petal
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Since I'm a design guy, let's just go to the mouth of the designer of this card, MaRo? "This card shows how crazy Black Lotus is. During Tempest design, I thought it would be flavorful to make new “fixed” Black Lotus. Since I liked the idea of a 0 cost artifact, I lowered the number of mana it produced. The development team even questioned if it was too weak. In the end though we felt like the card might find some use in a very niche deck. I guess the niche decks were degenerate decks." Tolarian Academy says thanks (with some help from Hurkyl's Recall and the storm mechanic).

Name: Mystical Tutor
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Like all good one mana tutors, it's too powerful in multiples (Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Merchant Scroll). Considering it gets the best cards in Vintage (Ancestral Recall, Yawgmoth's Will, Mana Drain), it's no surprise that this would get restricted when the metagame flipped to a more spell based environment. The "drawback" of putting on top of your library is not one at all; if you play it at the end of your opponent's turn you can draw it and not allow it to get stripped with a Duress/Thoughtsieze/Mind Twist.

Name: Necropotence
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: The card that started all of those breakfast cereal names. It's a real good card advantage draw engine. Back in the day (Ice Age) people would draw alot of cards, then Drain Life their opponent's life and do it all over again. In Extended it was also matched with an Ice Age card (Illusions of Grandeur) and MaRo favorite, Donate. Paying 1 life for a card is too good, as Yawgmoth's Bargain proves.

Name: Sensei's Divining Top
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Extended
Why: Sure, it's a card that takes some time to play through, which is totally something worth considering. But I believe that it's a combination of two cards that got this banned. First: Counterbalance, a house in Legacy. Second: the upcoming printing of Tezzert. Yes, this card was banned last year right before Shards came out. I guess being able to fetch this card and create a soft lock was way too good for Extended, and they're right.

[Not to mention even non-Counterbalance decks played it, and it slowed down the games so much that they went to time really often. -Salivanth]

Name: Serendib Efreet
Banned/Restricted Format: Currently - None/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Again, another creature that was so powerful when Extended first started out as a format it was banned outright. Even by today's standards it would be a powerful card (as evidence by it almost being Timeshifted [Here's the link for you to use - http://www.wizards.com/magic/magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af139]) but powerful to be banned? At that time, there wasn't alot of cards that would see play to get rid of it (Swords to Plowshares and maybe Fireblast). Since then, there have been plenty of removal where it can safely see play in Eternal formats.

Name: Skullclamp
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Mirrodin Block, Extended, Legacy/Previously Banned - Standard
Why: The best example of why to ban a card in a format, Every deck had it, or was built to beat it. When introducing a new card type, it's best to push it a little bit to see how far it goes. But it wasn't even supposed to have the +1/-1 attached to it (It was originally to be +1/+2 but pushed it to make it better [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/af17] (By the way, read the last paragraph. It's the last line that's the most chilling)). This card is degenerate, which is why more artifacts are banned/restricted because they can go in any deck.

Name: Strip Mine
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: Because even it's younger brother who can only hit non-basics is pretty powerful (Wasteland, for those who didn't know). Crucible of Worlds and Life from the Loam make this abusable and the fact that this land kill can't be countered (non-Stifle) is bad idea jeans (Look, if I could link to a non-Hulu site for this sketch, I would. If you can see Hulu, look it up). Land destruction does make things less fun to play (can you can't play anything) and this card is a great example why. Though I'm sure if this was in Standard right now, 5 color control wouldn't be as powerful.

Name: Tinker
Banned/Restricted Format: Banned - Legacy & EDH/Restricted - Vintage/Previously Banned - Extended
Why: Great idea gang: Let's make a card that allows you to put an artifact into play (It wasn't battlefield back then) without making you pay for it. We'll even allow you to search your deck for said artifact when you don't have it in your hand. Draw back: all you have to do is sacrifice an artifact. It's like you're tearing apart one artifact for another. Let's print it! Besides what a bad idea that is, the other reason it got banned in Extended was not the Bosh/Isochron Scepter brokenness, it was right before Darksteel came out. You know, like Darksteel Colossus (Oath of Druids was banned at the same time as well [Link -http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtgcom/daily/rb100], I wonder why).

Name: Trinisphere
Banned/Restricted Format: Restricted - Vintage
Why: As was Strip Mine an unfun card to not allow spells being played, this is a little different. Yes, it shuts down cheap combo decks but in Vintage with Mirshra's Workshop it can take a player out of a game. By playing a few Moxes, Workshop and this in the first turn before your opponent has even played anything holding a hand full of Moxes and a Lotus, you've won the game. It was too disruptive to even consider not restricting it down the road.

That's a look at the cards in the From the Vault: Exiled list. While I felt they picked cards that showcased some of their mistakes, there could've have been some more interesting choices in terms of "promo awesome to have in foil" cards (Tolarian Academy, Memory Jar, etc...). Maybe they're saving those for From the Vault: Exiled 2: Exiled Harder. 

Magic: The Blogging

Greetings to all the Magic: the Gathering players out there! My name is Jay Bailey, and my handle is Salivanth. I've played the game for a few years, am a very good local player (though not too good in the wider community), an experienced writer, and a quasi-experienced blogger. I do have another blog, which is linked to here, but it's not about Magic: The Gathering. It is, instead, about personal growth and development, one of my two passions (the other being, of course, Magic).

I have actually wanted to start this blog for several weeks now, but haven't been sure I have something unique or even useful to say. However, trawling the blogosphere, I've noticed a lack of good Magic strategy on blogs. There's lots of great strategy. There's lots of blogs. But the two rarely come together. So I'm here to make that union.

My aim is to provide my readers with daily, high-quality, original, and personable Magic: The Gathering content, tech and strategy. Nothing less to me will suffice (although quality may take some time to emerge as I get used to blogging about Magic.)

Most Magic blog posts are short. I'm a fairly verbose blogger, generally averaging 600-1000 words per blog post (at least on my first blog). I'll be covering a wide range of topic, from spoilers of new sets to tournament reports, to deck ideas. A link to my Magic: The Gathering-only Twitter account can be found here.

I go to FNM on Saturday (I live in Australia) so tomorrow I should be bringing you a tournament report as a post. After that we'll delve into the bottomless pit of Magic: The Gathering strategy. I can hardly wait!

My favourite, and by far most prolific format is Standard. I almost never venture into Extended, Legacy or Vintage, but am a halfway-decent Limited player. I LOVE drafting M10, and always end up with blue/black decks somehow. I also like drafting Shards/Conflux/Reborn, though not as much as M10. I usually end up Esper since only 2 Esper drafters are usually at the table, so I score lots of good stuff.

I'm currently playing a Kithkin deck, but it's a bit up in the air since M10 rotated in. Here's the decklist I hacked out:

20 Plains

4 Windbrisk Heights

4 Figure of Destiny

4 Wizened Cenn

4 Knight of Meadowgrain

4 Cloudgoat Ranger

3 Captain of the Watch

2 Goldmeadow Stalwart

4 Honor of the Pure

4 Spectral Procession

3 Ajani Goldmane

2 Path to Exile

2 Harm's Way

Sideboard:

4 Ethersworn Canonist

3 Stillmoon Cavalier

3 Burrenton Forge-Tender

2 Ranger of Eos

2 Harm's Way

1 Path to Exile

Notes on the deck:

Captain of the Watch: The Captain is just sick to flip off a Windbrisk Heights. He may cost 6 mana, but that's only one more than Cloudgoat, and he's excellent against Control. A control deck HAS to Wrath this guy, or die in short order.

I cut the Stalwarts since I didn't believe they were as useful as other cards in the deck especially since Turn 1 I was using Windbrisk Heights anyway.

No Mutavaults: I almost never activate them. 0 Mutavaults may not be the objectively correct decision, but it works for my playstyle. I've played about 40-50 games with the deck, and lost a couple of games because of Mutavault stopping WWW for Spectral...but I've never won a game thanks to Mutavault.

Harm's Way: Harm's Way is THE BOMB. Especially against Red decks. Nobody expects it. They don't play around it. It is just as good as Path to Exile, and including 2 of each makes my opponents play around both. I think HW may even be BETTER than Path as long as people don't expect it, hence the 3 Paths total, and the 4 Harm's Way total.

Ranger of Eos: Ranger of Eos into 3 BFT's spells death for the Red deck. Also, searching for Figures makes for great Wrath resistance. At 6 mana, a single Figure becomes an 8/8 deathstick in just 2 turns.

The rest of the deck choices are fairly obvious, so I won't present notes on them. Everyone knows Figure of Destiny is awesome, me saying it is irrelevant.

Wow, that's a long post. I think that basically wraps it up as an introduction.

The blog is going to be a pretty lacklustre effort for up to a week while I get everything running. I'm not Superman, it may take a few days to make everything start to work.

Until next time, may you make a good beginnning.